Performance Improvement of an RC Moment-Resisting Frame by a Novel Lead Extrusion Damper: A Numerical Investigation

The structures in the seismic regions are designed to dissipate energy through inelastic behavior under strong ground motions based on the conventional seismic design practice, which makes them vulnerable to damage during major earthquakes releasing large amounts of seismic energy. On the other hand, replaceable energy dissipative devices are used as fuse members to diminish the energy demands of the structural elements and guarantee a reliable earthquake-resistant design. In this paper, a numerical investigation was performed for the performance improvement of an RC frame using a novel lead extrusion damper (LED). A one-bay and one-story bare reinforced concrete specimen, which has previously been tested under the effect of variable-amplitude displacement cycles based on the “ACI 374.2R – Guide for Testing Reinforced Concrete Structural Elements under Slowly Applied Simulated Seismic Loads”, was employed. Once the generated numerical model was validated through the experimental data, a new model in which the frame is equipped with the LED was evaluated under the same procedure. In addition, the effect of different configurations for the damper installation on the overall performance of the RC frame was discussed. Based on the analysis results, it can be stated that the LED significantly improved the seismic performance of the RC frame in terms of the amount of dissipated energy and damping ratio. Moreover, the hysteretic energy of the beam and column elements was reduced by the installation of the LED to the frame. It is also noteworthy that the RC frame’s behavior was considerably affected by the damper installation configuration.